Transmigration as a methodological challenge to urban social work

This paper engages with the changes in, and current methodological approaches to social work with migrants. By demonstrating how the trajectories of many contemporary migrants are marked by an on-going mobility, it further... [ view full abstract ]

This paper engages with the changes in, and current methodological approaches to social work with migrants. By demonstrating how the trajectories of many contemporary migrants are marked by an on-going mobility, it further complicates previous linear and unidirectional models of migration and demonstrates that there is a difference in perspective between the translocal and transnational lives of these ‘transmigrants’ on the one hand versus the locally rooted practices of social workers on the other hand.
The authors illustrate how many contemporary migrants come and go, not always being sure how long they will stay in the different stop-overs on their trajectories, when they will stop migrating, or where they will eventually settle. The social life of these transmigrants is not only oriented towards their new countries, but consists of complex networks and contacts beyond boundaries. They constantly shift between different modus operandi and between different visible and invisible, local and global networks.
Because of the temporality of their residence in a certain country, many transmigrants are not only faced with the same problems and challenges as other migrants, arriving newly in another country and rebuilding social networks, but are additionally confronted with a number of risks that are related to their mobile life style. While globalization and the porosity of nation-state borders facilitate transmigration, they also result in juridical and practical complexities, reflected in transmigrants’ everyday struggles.
Although much research has been done on transmigration on the one hand, and on international social work on the other hand, the effect of transmigration on social workers and on social work practice is still under-investigated. Based on social work research in Brussels and Antwerp, the authors discuss the challenges transmigration poses to social work.